Beatrice Nicolini

The Makran-Baluch-African Network in Zanzibar and East Africa during the XIXth Century

Throughout the western Indian Ocean during the XIXth Century there were not just one, but people from many regions, merchandise and slave routes. They were generally divided in two main monsoon directions: one from East Africa and the Red Sea to Arabia, to India and to South East Asia, and the other in the opposite direction; consequently, slaves were not only black Africans, but also Asians. 1 African slaves were imported in great numbers annually from East Africa to Oman, travelling on Arab dhows (sanbuq). Around the first half of the XIXth Century there was an extensive commerce of slaves from Ras Assir (“The Cape of Slaves”) and Pemba, and many African people were bought with cloth and dates on Zanzibar and Pemba Islands, enslaved, and transported to the Arabian Peninsula where they were mainly engaged in fishing pearls in the Persian/Arab Gulf. 2 Slaves also became lords of African “reigns”, as they were considered to be more loyal than anybody else within their clans and tribes. In this

European Slave Trading in the Indian Ocean, 1500‒1800

inclusive participation efforts, something that might feel deficient for people who see structural change as improbable and instead focus on incremental reforms. scoones does provide several short but detailed vignettes of specific places, including African countries, though some might wish to see more connections drawn across cases and regions. Another small concern is that, although scoones points to civil society as being necessary to hopes of furthering the sort of political projects needed to extend the rights-based approach he advocates, he does not give sufficient attention to what he means by civil society and how it might begin to challenge the structural dynamics discussed. Here, it is somewhat surprising that transnational social movements are mentioned only in passing. important contemporary issues related to rural livelihoods and migrations are also referenced but their implications could be better developed and linked to things such as over-urbanisation and changing migration policies and anti-immigrant sentiments in rich countries (e.g. Fortress europe). Although the focus is on rural development in the Global south, the book does try to break down hard dichotomies such as rural–urban and developed–developing, and instead emphasises the interconnectedness of rural livelihoods with things such as colonial transformations and present-day dynamics of urban migration and food consumption patterns. overall, this book is to be commended for its comprehensive overview of how sustainable rural livelihoods approaches have evolved, their popularity in influential institutions, and some of the major problems inherent in this uptake, while also tying these into fast-moving debates in the critical agrarian literature. The book provides both quick reference material and new insights for academics and practitioners seasoned in these debates.

Re-reading the Role of Oman Within Its International Trade Relations: From the Sixteenth Through to the Nineteenth Centuries

Land and maritime realities before and after the European empires from the sixteenth century onwards have been crucial issues throughout the history of the Indian Ocean. The history of Omani international trade relations has been closely connected to the maritime routes across the Indian Ocean. Within this framework, the gradual emergence of new Omani dynasties resulted from the polarizations that followed the struggles against the Portuguese presence in the Persian/Arab Gulf and in the Indian Ocean during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This gave rise to gradual and discontinuous processes of unification among the Omani groups, traditionally divided and in conflict with each other, which came to the fore in the progressive affirmation of what we could define as the international power of the Omani Arabs in the Persian/Arab Gulf and in the Indian Ocean. This paper attempts to answer the following question: are we so sure that Oman was part of a global unity that long preceded the economic unification of the world from the sixteenth century and the more recent processes of globalisation?